Newsletter

Editorial: Time has come for student regent

OK, so maybe it’s just lip service, but if students on the University of Georgia campus are as engaged, as inquisitive and as intelligent as at least a couple of their more influential elders are willing to say they are, it might be time to give some serious consideration to an idea that’s been kicked around for years — putting a University System of Georgia student on the Board of Regents, the appointed body that oversees the state’s 35 public colleges and universities.

The idea surfaced most recently earlier this week at a public information session held by representatives of the committee searching for a new University of Georgia president to replace longtime president Michael Adams, who’s leaving the post next year.

During a question-and-answer segment of the Wednesday information session, one student rose to suggest that a new UGA president should be someone willing to work directly with students, to the point of working to get a student appointment on to the Board of Regents.

Larry Walker, the former state legislator chairing the committee, responded to the question by noting that if the general public had been able to meet the students with whom he spoke during his time on campus Wednesday, “you’d think that (appointing a student to the regents) would be a good idea.”

And while he wasn’t directly addressing the issue of appointing a student to the Board of Regents, Adams did take time during a Thursday meeting of top university officials to praise the intelligence of the students in his freshman seminar, and to note that the university had recently enrolled its most academically talented freshman class.

And so do Walker and Adams beg the question: Why not have a student (or students) on the University System Board of Regents? If they’re as capable as the two men’s comments would seem to indicate, they should be welcome additions to the board.

Technically speaking, laying the groundwork for getting a student or students on the Board of Regents — in a voting capacity, of course, because what would be the point otherwise? — would be a somewhat daunting project. Because the board’s composition and duties are fixed in the state constitution, getting students on the board would require a constitutional amendment.

Amending the constitution requires a statewide referendum, and that referendum can come only after two-thirds of the members of the state legislature approve the placement of the proposed amendment on the ballot.

Underlying all that, of course, is the question of exactly how the constitution should be amended to allow for appointment of students to the Board of Regents. Currently, regents are appointed by the governor, with confirmation by the state Senate, to seven-year terms. The regents comprise one member from each congressional district in the state and five members from the state at large. So, the easiest way to amend the constitution might be to direct that one or more of the at-large seats should go to a student, and that any appointed student should serve as long as he or she remains enrolled in school, or for some shorter period of time.

But, to remove political machinations from the appointment process, it might also be wise to require that the governor make his appointments through some sort of random-selection process in which all students in good standing at a public college or university would have a chance of being selected for service.

Selected students might be compensated for service with some sort of tuition break, or with some form of class credit.

Interestingly, there are any number of other states — Utah, Louisiana, Iowa, Texas and Maryland among them, according to a quick Internet search — in which students serve as regents, so there would be plenty of guidance available for Georgia legislators interested in pursuing the idea.

Again, as noted earlier, it seems now as if the question regarding the placement of students on the Board of Regents shouldn’t be “Why?” but “Why not?”